Ok so…Dad, Uncle Paul, Uncle Dan…move along. You don’t wanna read this.
Is it safe? Just us girls? Ok.
You GUYSIMEANGIRLS! I don’t know why I haven’t blogged about this before.
About two years ago, my hormones went CRAY CRAY. My two main symptoms were terrible cystic acne on my forehead (swelling the size of nickels and quarters, girls. I looked alternately like a unicorn or a many-horned monster) and periods where, let’s just say, I often couldn’t leave my house for a couple days.
I am happy to say I have now, for the most part, solved both of these problems. If I were a GOOD blogger, I would insert graphic here with the words “How I solved my hormone problems” or “How to get rid of hormonal acne.”
But we all know I care JUST enough to keep the phone bill paid, so I’m just gonna be a lamb and TELL ya.
I solved the acne problem with a supplement called DIM. It’s all-natural. I think it’s basically like eating 12 heads of broccoli a day. There are lots of different brands, here are two I like: Estroblock PRO and Food Science of Vermont.
(These aren’t even affiliate links, because I am a TOTAL SLACKER!! So refreshing.)
I take it religiously and it works. And I can REALLY TELL if I forget to take it. Whoo-whee.
The way I solved my horrendously heavy periods…was a little more complicated.
I got my uterine lining burned off. It’s WAY MORE awesome than it sounds! Also, it’s a lot more expensive than supplements, but besides my van, it’s the best thing I’ve ever spent multiple thousands of dollars on. Plus, I had it in February, so way to meet that deductible early in the year! I’m not joking. It has improved my life SO much, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Now, you have to be done having babies if you’re going to go this route, but since I got my tubes tied literally SECONDS after Jonah was born, I was a PRIME CANDIDATE.
And seriously, it worked. I now barely notice my period. Some people never get theirs back. I did, but I’ve gone from keeping the feminine hygiene companies in business to pantyliners only. {Dudes, I REALLY hope you have stopped reading long before this…} It’s AMAZING! I would never be on a feminine hygiene commercial but I’d totally be on a commercial for his procedure, called and ablation. Ablations R Us. Sign me up.
Sadly, I still get hormone headaches and MAYBE A LITTLE MOODY SOMETIMES (maybe), but since these two main problems are solved, I try not to complain too much.
So now you know more than you need to know about my lady business. How’s yours???
Sadly, I did not heed the warning !! But it does remind me of a very funny, albeit inappropriate joke 🙂
I knew you would read it anyway. But at least I warned you.
You crack me up! Seriously, though– we need to talk about this stuff more. There are way too many of us dealing with issues and, once again, feeling alone when, in fact, we have friends and peers who totally get it. Thank you for being one of the brave ones!
LOL, no PROBLEM!
A friend of mine had an ablation done a year ago, but it went HORRIBLY for her. Basically her uterus formed scar tissue around various pockets of remaining blood and every month her uterus worked tirelessly (and unsuccessfully) to expel those remaining pockets. So, every period she was left writhing in horrific pain. Her obgyn said “yeah, I shouldn’t have done that procedure on you. It rarely works out for women your age.” She’s 35. And last month she was forced to have a partial hysterectomy. But…..um……glad it worked out for you! 🙂
That’s awful! I have three other friends who were my age (36 at the time) or younger when they got it done, and they were all very happy with the restults. I feel awful for your friend.
So my main gripe about lady business is that I go through periods for nothing since my body refuses to get pregnant. Useless. Also now that I am getting older I think my periods are getting closer together. Just me?
That totally sucks and is so wrong on so many levels. My cycles have gotten shorter, about 25 days. They were about 21 days before I got on the estrogen blocker and that was really NOT cool!
Since we’re talking about lady business, I’ll tell you that once I was getting two periods a month! Whaaaaaaaaa?! I thought I was being super healthy and I was using a bunch of soy milk. I drank it, I made smoothies with it, I had it in cereal. Then this insanity started and I coudln’t figure out why. I went to a health food store one day and was looking for soy milk. They had none and I asked the guy why. He told me that they refused to carry it due to the hormones used to produce most soy. He said that the hormones were causing weird issues. I remember saying out loud, “NO WAY! THIS MUST BE WHY I’M HAVING TWO PERIODS.” So there are two parts to my story: 1) I don’t care if guys have to hear my lady business. I think educating them about our pains is a good thing. lol 2) Don’t drink mass amounts of soy milk!
Ablation surgery FTW! I had it done a few years back. My periods didn’t completely stop but became MUCH lighter.
Glad you found things that work (and have I mentioned before how much I love reading your posts?! you’re just so real and good, and I love you).
My mom had an ablation last year, but after it she started getting pretty horrible cramping. Not sure if she’s figured that out yet, but really glad to hear yours has worked! I don’t know if I’m done with kids yet or not….but I’d sure love to hear a cure for those headaches…I JUST started getting them this year a few days beforehand, and gosh they’re awful!
Did you have depression and anxiety with your hormone issues? I’ve found that as I get older (no, not older, more refined and prettier) my periods are less of a big deal physically but they’re a huge deal emotionally (and in the week preceeding it). Maybe I’ll find some supplements so I don’t freak out about every damn thing. Thanks for the tip!
Yes and yes. The supplements have eased it a LOT. I still get a day or two of anxiousness about mid-way through my cycle but it’s not nearly as bad as it was. For instance, I was about to jump out of my skin waiting for the big kids to come out of school the other day. They were just being slow…but I was so irrationally anxious about it and it was about that time that I get irrationally anxious about stuff. FYI if you buy a DIM supplement, you can take more if you start with a smaller dosage and it’s not working. I started out not seeing results, so at first I had to take more, but as my ‘mones evened out, I was able to dial it down a bit.
I’ve had some major hormonal issues in the past couple of years. I’ve tried all kinds of things to get things balanced. 2 months ago I was introduced to an all natural supplement that has changed my life and my period. I went from 10 day long periods where I thought I might bleed to death and cramps that would put me out of commission and make me sick and some super awesome moods swings. to 7 days, no cramps, even moods. I would seriously sell a kidney to get it! It is called Estrosense(completely natural no soy). It is $20 on Amazon if you do Subscribed and Save. It is worth every penny! 😀